Author George R. R. Martin tried desperately to talk HBO out of making a TV show out of his epic “Game of Thrones” books — for fear that a flop would kill his popular series, according to a new book.
In the preface to a new book, Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones, Martin recalls telling the shows future producers, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff that ‘[i]t’s too big. It’s too complicated. It’s too expensive,’ and that ‘Hollywood Boulevard is lined with the skulls and bleached bones.’ Read More »
Life, art by Keith Parkinson
Bestselling fantasy author Terry Goodkind is self-publishing his next novel, The First Confessor. The author has been releasing tidbits about the book via social media–he has shared links to two book trailers through Twitter and his Facebook page–and, on Tuesday, unveiled the title of the work. The book will be available on July 2.
Goodkind’s agent, Russell Galen, of Scovil Galen Ghosh, declined to offer any more details about the book, but confirmed that this will be the first title the author has self-published. Goodkind is arguably best known for his Sword of Truth series.
Without a lot to go on (except for one personal story that makes this whole situation extremely interesting to me, but will remain behind my sealed lips), I’m curious whether this is a decision made by Tor (which I doubt) that might reflect the poor sales of his recent novels. The Law of Nines underperformed so poorly that he abandoned that series to return to the Sword of Truth universe (though, really, he never left in the first place), and that novel was published by Putnam Adult, an imprint of Penguin (best known to Fantasy readers for their imprint, Ace), rather than Tor and Macmillan, Goodkind’s long-time publishers.
Or, is this a bold move by Goodkind, who has long felt that he is the master of not only his own domain, but all domains which intersect on the venn-diagram of his existence, looking to capitalize on the success of his name as a brand. I think we can all breath a sigh of relief to see Goodkind finally escaped from the tyrannical clutches of traditional publishers and will now be able to tell the story of “The First Confessor” without bending to the sway of Tom Doherty.
I generally stay away from taking jabs at people in ill-faith (okay, that’s a bit of a white lie, but still…), but this quote, from an old USA Today interview (via Ansible) with Terry Goodkind, author of such bastions of literature as Wizard’s First Rule, Naked Empire and Chainfire, just screamed for some attention. One can only assume that the dude’s still an asshole.
‘First of all, I don’t write fantasy. I write stories that have important human themes. They have elements of romance, history, adventure, mystery and philosophy. Most fantasy is one-dimensional. It’s either about magic or a world-building. I don’t do either.’
No. No he does not. But, hey, at least he’s aware of his shortcomings!
I suppose the real problem, though, is that we’re all too ignorant to see past the Dragons, roiling balls of liquid fire, sword fights, Wizards, alternate realities, prophecies, Evil Dark Lords, princesses, and massive army battles to understand that he writes not Fantasy, but philosophical explorations of what it means to be a human being.
Another gem includes:
Weymouth, MA: In your opinion who is the most must-read, cutting edge writer publishing today?
Terry Goodkind: Ayn Rand.
Who wants to be the one to break news of Ayn Rand’s death to Goodkind?
